Recruiting is Broken; Let’s Begin to Fix It
Ever since my first job in high school, HR has generally been seen as a barrier and nuisance, rather than a function that creates true, reliable value, and there’s no area that is more problematic in this respect than recruiting.
If you don’t believe me, just have a look at many of the job ads, even on more professional websites such as LinkedIn, and you’ll find a lot of red flags. Here are a few notable examples. Problem is, the jobs ads seem to be made to attract lots of candidates which strictly follow the “job description” (which generally doesn’t really describe the job itself), than to attract the right candidates which have the potential to bring the most value to the company.
Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand how problematic it is to find a good candidate, especially among the thousands attracted by high salaries and having nothing better to do, but that’s why I propose the following improvements:
1. Balance the Job Ad
The first issue with most job ads is their lopsided nature, which originates in the recruiting process itself. The job posting offers a lot of information on public information about the company, responsibilities of the employee, required qualifications and skills of the employee, and sometimes offers some information as to the benefits of the position, usually in far less detail.
My suggestion is let’s have things be balanced out, like a ledger. Let’s have the company prepare a “resume”, just like the employee, and include the resume of the direct superior for that position, so that the employee can do the same checks the company does. Let’s have the information about the company also describe how the company treats its employees, ideally backed up by a link to some independent resource such as Glassdoor. Let’s have the responsibilities of the position in the context of the process as a whole, so that they may better be understood, and their scope can be judged by a potential candidate. Let’s link the qualifications to the benefits, so that companies can’t just demand excessive qualifications without offering something in return; after all, if the company really needs someone with a Master’s degree, for example, that must create value for them, so they should be willing to pay extra for it. Finally, let’s offer equal space for the benefits as we do for the requirements; I see no reason why the company spends all that time telling an employee what they want, without taking the time to spell out exactly what they offer. After all, if the salary is all the company offers, it can’t seriously expect one to be eager to learn, open to new challenges, proactive and with initiative, etc.
2. Disclose the Salary
A big part of why job ads are unpleasant to deal with is the fact that it all feels like a hustle. The company, which is after all the entity with the superior bargaining position, often keeps its budget a strict secret, only claiming to offer “competitive remuneration” (which sounds to me like saying they can’t pay you any less, or you’ll leave to work for the competition).
My suggestion is to come out directly with the budget for the position, as a range, and explain what the reasoning is for either end. I am a strong believer in transparency, and I’ve always been upfront with potential candidates about what we can afford to pay them, as well as about how they are expected to contribute to value. Too many companies treat their employees like lifeless resources, and in doing so forget that employees exist to create value for the company, not to take the smallest possible wage for performing a task and that’s that. By offering this transparency, companies can gain candidates that really care about the company beyond getting a salary and then running off home to forget all about their meaningless jobs.
3. Be Honest
If there’s one thing all job postings could do with minimum effort and maximum impact, it would be to drop the air of condescending perfection that they give to the jobs they offer. So many companies pretend to be these utopian workspaces, offering total professionalism while demanding it in return. But how many jobs really are that way?
My suggestion is to, simply, be honest. If you’re dealing with adults, and you expect them to act that way, don’t pretend that your 12-hour-day open-space high-stress desk job is some sort of stepping stone to greatness. I understand jobs need to be sold in order for people to apply under these conditions, but why not admit that you require a lot from them, and then focus on how you can balance the equation. What does a company gain from misleading an employee other than a high employee turnover rate and excessive recruiting costs?
4. Recognize Potential
Moving on along the recruiting process, perhaps one of the largest mistakes I’ve seen in HR is failing to understand the potential (or lack thereof) in candidates. Of course, it’s very difficult for HR to understand the intricacies of each position and what makes someone successful, but this is often times crucial to getting value out of the relationship.
My suggestion here is not as simple as the other ones, but it involves tight integration between managers and HR, and significant development of HR personnel to understand the talent pool and its potential value for the company. I suggest that any recruiter understands what generates value for the company, what motivates the employees, and how the two can be correlated for as long as possible. It has been my experience that I prefer someone who is capable of working and learning, sometimes even more than I prefer someone who is already skilled enough to perform all the tasks. The reason for this is that the company as a whole, and the responsibilities and requirements of the positions therein, must inevitably change with time, and therefore job descriptions should be guidelines rather than strict requirements.
5. Describe the Job
Finally, one of the strangest aspects of the job ad is the fact that people don’t take the time to thoroughly explain the position, the daily activities, or even their expectations for the candidate, instead just listing out all the activities they can imagine that job entails, without any meaningful context or explanations.
My suggestion is to create the job description starting from someone who already exists in such a position (if no one exists internally, there are plenty of people on LinkedIn), and define what their work really looks like, with as much detail and context as possible, in order to convey the real nature and requirements of the position, instead of what the candidate may be imagining they all mean. For example, telling someone they need to have very good interpersonal skills may lead them to think they need to be a great relationship manager, when all that refers to is the one call a month they’ll have with a client, which also involves an actual relationship manager. Expanding on that, something that constantly surprises me is the fact that most job ads contain nothing about expectations, even when the positions have detailed KPIs defined internally. How does a company expect to find the best candidate if it doesn’t know or communicate its needs?
Conclusion
In conclusion, I urge the people in charge of these processes to consider balancing the job ad, offering more transparency and honesty, and understanding that, unlike office equipment, people can’t simply be picked by specifications alone, and won’t be expected to do the same function all the time. To add to that, focus more on explaining to people what they’re really expected to be doing, rather than simply giving them bullet points of activities with no context.
I’m sure there may be situations where I’m wrong (low-skilled jobs might be an example), but this is my perspective on the matter, and I hope that people give more thought to these matters in the future, to move our society beyond simply making pie charts look better for investors, and towards true collaboration and mutual growth.
These are just my opinions on the matter, and I’d love to hear your feedback as to how we could improve them even more, or replace them with even more sensible ideas.
